Death's Vignette
by Taryn Knight
Summary: Mamoru has pushed her away for the last time... Usagi sees only one solution. A four part series of short stories.
1. The Moon

The pain had cut so deep, I thought I would never breath again. It was like a fist had slammed into my stomach and forced all the air from my lungs in one fell swoop.

At first, tears had refused to come. Instead a strange numbing had spread through every nerve leaving me feeling cold and empty. The world went mute and while I stared I still saw absolutely nothing but my own bleak existence stretching out before me like some dark abyss.

The same words kept echoing over and over in my mind.

_We can't be together._

Why not? Why _NOT_!

No explanation would surface. The comment had come so suddenly, so out of the blue! The day before we had been laughing, teasing, flirting.

We. Had. Been._ Happy_.

It seemed as though the bottom card of my castle had been pulled and the entire deck had come crashing down without any warning.

I felt like the proverbial frog just figuring out that the pot was boiling and it was too late to jump out. Part of me screamed that I should have seen this coming. Mamoru was older than me, so much more mature. It was logical to assume someone at his maturity level would come along.

The tears had came, welling up in my eyes before they spilled over, hot and wet against flushed cheeks. No words could express the anguish I felt inside. So silence became my closest companion as noiseless sobs racked my frame.

I pressed my body against the cool tile floor of the bathroom and cried until I was too tired to even do that anymore.

Seconds ticked by into minutes, minutes mutated into hours until I had no sense of how much time had past. The world seemed... surreal. Everything was moving in slow motion and there was nothing I could do to speed it up or make it go away.

As I lay there, I thought about what to do. My mind reeled with all the possibilities, the results and outcomes of whatever decision I made. Only one came to mind that would prove definite and unchangeable.

In a moment of clarity, of stark realization, I knew what I had to do.

As I rose slowly to my feet, I offered my reflection one that glance.

It was a grim, but determined face that stared back at me. One that had found the perfect solution... to everything.


	2. The Earth

The picture was gripped firmly in my clenched hands. The glass within the ornate frame had long since been shattered, and now only jagged pieces were left to protruded at odd angles from splintering wood.

Another salty tear splattered against the damp photograph of a smiling girl and the love of her life.

My fingers tightened and turned white as blood was no longer able to properly circulate through them.

I _hated_ doing this to her, pushing her away like I didn't care. What else could I do? Telling her to leave hurt her... but staying with her would _kill_ her.

_You could tell her the truth._

That voice again, a conscious they called it.

I called it the voice of Hell.

She wouldn't believe the truth anymore then I believed this would end well.

Again the picture discovered the glory of flight as I heaved it across the room. The frame had barely escaped my fingers and I already regretted throwing it.

In the end it would only mean I had to get up to retrieve it, so I could look once more at the girl within, her happiness caught forever in a single frame, and hate myself for what I was doing to her.

But I had no choice.

I was doing this for her.

She would never understand how much it tore me up inside when I had to stare into those hopeful blue eyes and tell her that I did not love her. That we were over and could never be together.

I stared down at my hands, turning them over to examine bloodied knuckles and half formed scabs. The wall beside me streaked reddish-brown where I had taken out my frustration.

I wanted nothing more then to pick up the phone, which was glaring mockingly at me from across the room, and tell her how much I loved her.

A heavy feeling of dread in the pit of my stomach kept me rooted to the floor where I sat.

I buried my face in my hands and let out a muffled yell of pent up anger and pain that was bording on the line of unbearable.

The first time the dream had come, I believed it to have been just that... a dream. A startling one that had jolted me from sleep, drenched in a fitful sweat and leaving me feeling even more tired then when I had laid down hours before.

After a week of consistant, and foreboding, warnings I knew that it went deeper than bad Chinese before bed.

Much deeper.

A knock on the door broke me from morbid thoughts, thoughts I never believed would enter my mind.

I forced myself to my feet and in a zombie-like fashion shuffled to the door.

More insistant, abnormally loud knocking occured before I managed to throw all the locks and jerk the door open a bit more impatiently then I might have otherwise.

My eyes widened just a bit. Usagi? What are you-


	3. Eclipse

_"Tenshi no tsubasa tobashi..."_

The soft singing broke through muddled thoughts and I resisted the urge to open my eyes. Slender fingers came to rest upon my forehead, accompanied by a gentle kiss. I was lost in the moment of pure serenity and calm indifference.

_"Afurederu namida fuki..." _

The angel continued to sing and I would die before I interrupted such an elegant serenade! A soft breeze drifted in from somewhere bringing with it the smell of the sea and warmth of the day.

_"Kuchizuke o sasage you_..."

The fingers ceased there gentle movement across my brow and I opened my eyes. At first I thought an angel hovered over me, the sunlight spilling in through the window behind her made her glow as though on fire. My slightly blurred vision didnít help matters much either. She smiled as she sat back and my eyes began to adjust to lighting of the room.

A strange feeling of foreboding washed over me. Everything was quiet, the sound of a horn honking reached my ears and though it seemed miles away I knew it was close.

"I have to go now, love, that's Minako come to pick me up," Usagi's voice was bright and chipper, hardly the same angelic noise that had been singing moments before. What was going on?

"Don't worry though," she said, as if I had made any hint towards such a thing. "I'll be back in just a few hours... we're going shopping."

No surprise there, I thought to myself.

"Don't be silly," she continued as though I had responded to her. "They know our situation, visiting hours wonít be a problem."

Visiting hours? I tried to sit up only to realize I couldn't move. I tried to lift my arm, my hand... my fingers and received no response! I felt panic rising. Usagi must've noticed it too for she frowned.

"You must be scared," she whispered softly, leaning over me again. I didn't know why but I wanted her to leave now, more then I ever had before. "Don't be, my love, as soon as you're better the doctors will let you leave..." The horn honked again and Usagiís frown deepened.

"Maybe I should stay..." Usagi said, glancing towards the window.

Leave, oh please leave, I thought to myself.

"I'll be back soon, I promise," she said softly, almost as though she had read my thoughts.

I wanted to watch her leave but I couldn't get my head to move or even turn. I was left staring at that window, watching as the wind lazily blew plain white curtains back and forth.

When I got better? I wasnít the one who had tried to kill anyone! The memories were slowly trickling back into my mind. Usagi standing on my door step before forcing her way into my apartment. Pulling out the gun that she had gotten from God knows where and threatening to kill the both of us if I didnít give her a better explanation then 'just because.'

For some reason, everything after that was fuzzy, a shaded part in my memory that refused to surface.

Every time I tried to draw forward the result of that evening, it danced away like a naughty child ran from his angry mother.

I lay for a long time trying to make sense of things.

Usagi had threatened to kill me and I couldnít remember what I did. Was that normal?

I did recall that things had been thrown, so the only logical explanation was that something mustíve hit me in the head and I ended up here, paralyzed with a psychotic woman caring for me.

Right?

------------

**A/N **

The song Usagi sings is from BSSM. It's called Dakishimete Itai which means I Want to Hold You. The part of the song that she sings translates as follows:

_Tenshi no tsubasa tobashi - _Flying on angel's wings  
_ Afurederu namida fukie kuchizuku o sasage you _- And overflowing with tears, please kiss me!

Lyrics were found on - http/ if interested : )


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